Unlikable

Hard Truths (2024) - Leigh Like many of Mike Leigh protagonists, Pansy (played by Marianne Jean Baptiste) is not a likable character. She thinks the world is out to get her, so long become bitter and confrontational in any human interactions, both family and strangers. Her contractor husband, Curtley (David Webber) and her slacker, grown up son Moses (Tuwaine Barrett) get the brunt of Pansy's fury daily. With years of her abuse while living under the same roof, they have simply given up dealing with her. The only person who is still sympathetic to Pansy is her sister Chantelle (Michele Austin) who is a down-to-earth, neighborly hairdresser. To Pansy's discomfort, Chantelle keeps on pushing her to show up for the fifth anniversary of their mother's death.

We know a person like that in real life, you'd think something bad must have happened to her in her early life, because she is so angry and anxious all the time. Not that Hard Truth gives you all the answers as to what happened to Pansy. No, that's not what Leigh is after. He and his collaborators, this time, the great Marianne Jean Baptiste as the lead, dig deeper into prevailing humanity underneath all the bitterness and hate. And it's a sight to see. Pansy is a very hard to like character. But by the end, we see a glimpse of her humanity peeking through here and there, that not all is lost. And with Curtley, despite his hurting back and Moses finding friends in unexpected places, that they are going to be all right.

Marianne Jean Baptiste deserves all the accolades for this performance. By far the best performance by any actor I've seen in a while.

Solar Deity

Mr. Turner (2014) - Leigh





I think the last Mike Leigh movie I saw was Career Girls. I haven't seen his period pieces or biographies. But are they this lackluster? The subject here is J.M.W. Turner, the best known English painter whose almost abstract seascape paintings are the country's biggest treasures. A barber (played wonderfully by Paul Jesson)'s son, Turner (a Leigh regular and great character actor Tim Spall) is obsessive, gregarious painter who is constantly traveling to capture the ever luminous sunlight. For two and a half hours, we follow Turner as he goes back and forth from his London studio to a seaside town, him conversing with the snobby London painters' society, to his death. But Mr. Turner is too subtle to be about anything. He was a fervent abolitionist- where is the fire? He is played by Tim Spall, who's not a good looking man- where is the ramification for his hideousness? His long suffering maid- where does she fit in? Even though he enjoyed relative wealth and fame, he suffered public ridicule for his increasingly abstract work- where is his struggles with this notion? Struggle is precisely what's missing from this film. It's too subdued and too safe. I understand that Leigh is trying to show that Turner was an ordinary man. But he wasn't. There has to be some kind of spark in him to be regarded as the Rembrandt of England.

Shot by Leigh regular Dick Pope, the film showcases beautiful palettes. Turner's primary color, that of the sun, yellow is everywhere. Gary Yershon's score is also beautiful and delicate. Tim Spall grunts his way through Turner's not so eventful life. But watching Mr. Turner is a struggle and a half.